Commitments and Contingencies (Details Textual) (USD $)	9 Months Ended
	Sep. 30, 2011 Employee LegalMatter Property Location	Sep. 30, 2010 Contract	Feb. 25, 2011 Kettleman Hills [Member]	Apr. 11, 2011 Kaiser Missouri [Member]
Commitments and Contingencies (Textual) [Abstract]
Environmental Remediation Reasonably Possible Additional Losses, if high estimate were used	$ 150,000,000
Environmental remediation liability	285,000,000
Number of sites listed on the EPA's NPL for which we have been notified we are a PRP	79
Number of owned sites listed on the EPA's NPL for which we have been notified we are a PRP	17
Number of non-owned sites listed on the EPA's NPL for which we have been notified we are a PRP	62
Number of separate wage and hour lawsuits pending against certain of our subsidiaries in California, each seeking class certification	2
Dollar threshold for environmental matters requiring disclosure under Item 103 of the SEC's Regulation S-K	100,000
Approximate percentage of workforce covered by collective bargaining agreements	20.00%
Charge to "Operating" expenses for the agreed upon withdrawal of bargaining units from multiemployer pension plans, Central States		26,000,000
Number of bargaining units withdrawn from multiemployer pension plans		3
Number of months expected for IRS audit(s) to be completed	3 and 15
Approximate number of homeowners' properties adjacent to or near certain of our landfills with agreements guaranteeing market value	900
Number of landfills adjacent to or near homeowners' properties with agreements guaranteeing market value	21
Term of Guarantees of financial obligations	Guarantees of unconsolidated entities' financial obligations maturing through 2020
Future payments regarding guarantees of unconsolidated entities financial obligations	11,000,000
Number of months expected for examination to be completed	12 months
Loss Contingencies [Line Items]
Civil penalties for the violation alleged			$ 400,000	$ 118,800